Five-year-old boy demands first haircut

Five-year-old Rean Carter has not had his hair cut since the day he was born but his locks are set for the chop after the schoolboy, sick of being mistaken for a girl, demanded a trip to the barber.

The youngster has raised £82 (€98.55) in sponsorship from friends, relatives, and classmates in his reception class at Grange Park Primary school, in Sunderland, and plans to donate the money to Sunderland Royal Hospital children’s unit, where he was admitted for a week and a half in 2010, suffering from impetigo.

Mother Leeanne Smith, 30, of Hylton Castle, Sunderland, said: “When Rean was born he had a lovely little curl of golden hair at the back of his head.

“I just could never bear to get it cut, not even his fringe. Now it flows all the way down his back to his bum and is very beautiful and soft.

“I don’t wish he was a little girl and I don’t see him that way, though I would love a daughter.

“He is a proper little boy who likes Scooby Doo and cars and is getting into football.”